S.a.f.e. (suicide and fall estop) fall prevention system for bridges, viaducts or structures due to accidents or suicide attempts

ABSTRACT

A SAFE (SUICIDE AND FALL ESTOP) which is intended to prevent suicide attempts or accidents that may result in death by free fall from high structures such as bridges, viaducts and buildings that allow passage through obstacles such as rivers and elevations and can be used as a high security element to prevent falling during maintenance of said structures, bridges, viaducts automatically or manually.

CROSS REFERENCES TO THE RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the national phase of International Application No. PCT/TR2018/050105, filed on Mar. 16, 2018, which is based upon and claims priority to Turkish Patent Application No. 2017/16396, filed on Oct. 24, 2017, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention is SAFE (SUICIDE AND FALL ESTOP) which is intended to prevent suicide attempts or accidents that may result in death by free fall from high structures such as bridges, viaducts and buildings that allow passage through obstacles such as rivers and elevations and can be used as a high security element to prevent falling during maintenance of said structures, bridges, viaducts automatically or manually.

More specifically, the object of the invention is about the free fall prevention system SAFE (SUICIDE AND FALL ESTOP) which detects suicidal actions or accidents automatically that may lead to a free fall of a person from high structures such as bridges, viaducts and buildings and after that prevents the fall of the individual by moving to the location of said falling individual, and which after that prevents the individual from attempting a new suicide attempt by carrying the individual to a safe place until the safety personnel arrives.

BACKGROUND

Although some structures and mechanisms have been developed to prevent suicide attempts in structures such as bridges, buildings or viaducts, they have limited features. For example, in these structures, fixed railing structures placed on the borders are made up to a certain height and can be overcome by the individual when the individual's physical properties allow. Likewise, measures such as barbed wire, cutter plates to be made on fixed railing can be overcome due to the determination of the person and can not prevent the person from performing suicide action. They are also applied with high cost and heavy workmanship.

During maintenance work on buildings, bridges or viaducts, the safety of workers is not fully ensured by existing systems. Wearable garments used for this purpose also make working conditions difficult.

WO2016137058 (A1) mentions a suicide-inhibiting mechanism, although said mechanism can only be used in bridges and viaducts, it is based on the guardrails in these constructions and speaks of a fixed mechanism that operates entirely said guardrails. There is a constant system implementation that makes it difficult to climb over the railing.

When the existing systems are examined, it has generally been seen that costly and complicated fixed systems are employed on the railing, which makes it difficult to climb or jump.

Another drawback of existing systems is that they increase the load impact of bridges, in addition to the cost of the materials used. The effect of the wind effect on the bridges has to be considered, which causes the security elements in the application to be more selective. This precision of the bridges restricts the use of heavy bulky security elements. For example, when considering the weight effect and wind factor of a certain height, it can create an adverse effect on the dynamics of the bridge, and at the same time it brings image pollution in aesthetic sense. For this reason, more systematic, less costly and feasible systems are needed.

As a result, it is not possible to prevent suicidal and psychologically determined individuals at the same time without affecting the dynamics of the existing systems, especially they only have time saving effects on the security forces and they can be applied with high costs.

SUMMARY

By means of the known technique, the aim of the invention is to put out a SAFE (SUICIDE AND FALL ESTOP) suicide or accidental fall prevention system that prevents falling actions in structures with high altitude such as bridges, buildings or viaducts due to accidents (eg slipping, railing, etc.) or suicide attempts, automatically or manually by means of its moving structure and afterwards carries the person to a safe point after the prevention of the fall, and which is used as a high security element against falling during maintenance and repair work in mentioned bridges, buildings or viaducts.

Another object of the invention is to provide a SAFE (SUICIDE AND FALL ESTOP) suicide or accidental fall prevention system that prevents another suicide attempt or fall of the mentioned individual until the related safety forces arrive at the area.

Another object of the invention is to establish a minimum impact on the dynamics of the building, while removing the human factor in the middle of the operation of the system. Another aim of the invention is to demonstrate that application and operating costs are minimized.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows the base parts of the inventive system.

FIG. 2 shows a bridge application example in which the system of the invention is applied.

FIG. 3 shows the closure mechanism and the representation of the rail system.

FIG. 4 shows the parts of the automation system.

REFERENCE NUMBERS

-   1. System to prevent suicide attempts and accidental falls in     bridges, viaducts and buildings (hereinafter referred to as the SAFE     system for short) -   11. Rail system -   12. Capture mechanism -   13. Automation system -   13.1. Camera -   13.2. Sensor -   14. Remote control -   15. Cabinet

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Security is important in today's high structures like bridges, viaducts and high buildings. It is aimed to introduce a SAFE system (1) which ensures the safety of the construction phase, the prevention of suicide attempts and the control of the attempted individual by moving him/her to a safe place. The SAFE system (1) seeks to prevent potential falls in these areas by moving to the areas containing risk, where safety of buildings such as buildings, bridges or viaducts is desired to be provided and placed in areas where there is a possibility of falling or suicide.

It is a system that enables workers to be safe during construction and/or post-construction maintenance and repair work, and prevents suicide attempts and allows the attempting individual to be transported to a safe place, which can be actuated manually and/or automatically without a human factor.

In this context, the inventive SAFE system (1) comprises: a rail system (11) applied to the entire side or bottom surface of a building, bridge or viaduct in parallel with the floor of the building for which safety is to be sought; a capture mechanism (12) located on the rail system (11); an automation system (13) which detects the movement in the follow-up zone and makes said capture mechanism (12) come to a suitable position on the rail system (11).

In another embodiment, it comprises a remote control (14) which, if desired, consciously actuates the capture mechanism (12) on the rail system (11) to bring it to the desired position.

The rail system (11) allows the capture mechanism (12) to travel to the coordinate point received via the remote control (14) and/or via the automation system (13).

The technical characteristic of the rail system (11) is applied in closed circuit form depending on the application area, depending on the length of the structure to be applied. Here, the rail system (11) can be applied in a greater number of ways, such as can be implemented in one go or more than one along the side or bottom surface of the structure, to provide the transportation as soon as possible at the coordinates determined, by taking the length of the structure into account.

In FIG. 2, two rail systems (11) can be positioned to start from the right and left by dividing the bridge length into two identical parts, or as a single rail system (11) having two capture mechanisms (12) can be applied.

Depending on the number of the capture mechanism (12), the cabinet (15) is formed.

What is important here is that the capture mechanism (12) on the rail system (11) is delivered to the specified coordinate as soon as possible. For this reason, the rail system (11) can be applied to the entire side surface of the structure as a plural or as a singular manner, depending on the measures of the structure to be applied, and the number of the c capture mechanisms (12) to be mounted is also calculated depending on these measurements.

The capture mechanism (12) shown in FIG. 3 includes a net, a mechanism that opens and closes the net, and a servo-motor that allows movement on the rail system (11). In its closed state, it will prevent the individual from coming out.

The cabinet (15) shown in FIG. 1 ensures that the capture mechanism (12) is charged when idle, but also protects it from adverse environmental conditions such as bad weather conditions. The cabinet (15) also exhibits a location feature for the security unit to receive the individual secured by the capture mechanism (12) at will.

The automation system (13) represented by the elements integrated in FIG. 4 is a structure that controls the areas of danger that are integrated with the sensor (13.2) and/or camera (13.1) systems. It is also integrated with the remote control(14).

It detects continuously the entire defined area with the sensors (13.2) and similar detection means and sends the capture mechanism (12) on the rail system (11) to the area where the danger or suicide attempt is detected.

Where more than one capture mechanism (12) is located, each capture mechanism (12) is defined in certain areas in the automation system (13).

The automation system (13) delivers the capture mechanism (12) closest to the identified hazard area as soon as possible.

Detection systems with sensor (13.2) and/or camera (13.1) are placed in calculations for all hazardous areas on the structure to which the system is to be applied and integrated with the entire capture mechanism/s (12) determined on the rail system (11) and automation system (13).

The capture mechanism/s (12) are located at a distance to allow movement to take place prior to the arrival time.

The capture mechanism (12) can be brought to the desired coordinate by means of the remote control (14) apart the automation system (13) for extreme safety reasons or during building modification.

In case of danger, the capture mechanism (12) is opened at the place where the positioning takes place, thereby preventing the falling action and closing and moving the individual to the cabinet (15) or to a safe point on the rail system (11).

The capture mechanism (12) is formed of a high-strength and at the same time a web from a flexible material, taking into account that if the inner lid is rigid and closed, it may cause injury if the person falls into the inner lid at the speed set by the drop.

This state prevents the person who falls or jumps from being minimally injured and prevents further suicide attempts by imprisoning the captured person for the purpose of preventing him/her from harming himself/herself again as it is foreseen to have committed suicide. 

What is claimed is: 1) A SAFE system to prevent suicide attempts and accidental falls in bridges, viaducts and buildings comprising: at least one rail system; at least one cabinet; at least one capture mechanism; an automation system and/or a remote control. 2) The SAFE system according to claim 1, comprising at least one rail mounted on a side or front face of a structure comprising buildings, bridges and viaducts where the SAFE system is installed, parallel to a plane whereon the buildings, bridges and viaducts sit. 3) The SAFE system according to claim 1, wherein the SAFE system comprises a feature of transporting the capture mechanism. 4) The SAFE system according to claim 1, wherein the capture mechanism includes an inner container containing a net made of a resilient and flexible material. 5) The SAFE system according to claim 1, wherein the capture mechanism includes a servo motor which provides movement by receiving a command from the automation system and/or the remote control. 6) The SAFE system according to claim 1, wherein the capture mechanism includes a radio receiver. 7) The SAFE system according to claim 1, wherein the capture mechanism includes a plurality of metal profiles surrounding the net. 8) The SAFE system according to claim 7, wherein the capture mechanism has the ability to be closed around the metal profiles by means of a radio signal transmitted by the remote control or the automation system. 9) The SAFE system according to claim 1, wherein the automation system includes a plurality of sensors and/or cameras that detect the possibility of any suicidal action in an area protected by the SAFE system. 10) (canceled) 11) The SAFE system according to claim 1, wherein the cabinet protects the capture mechanism against environmental conditions and charges the capture mechanism when the capture mechanism is not in operation. 12) The SAFE system according to claim 1, wherein the cabinet includes a lid, which enables an individual captured by the capture mechanism to be picked up by security officers. 